One Year Gone
by poeticgrace
Summary: The might have left Lima behind when their lives took off in "new directions", but they didn't leave their friends behind. Now a multi-chapter story of one shots from multiple POVs.
1. Rachel

**_Be a best friend._  
**Rachel had started high school without a single friend in the world and ended it with a dozen people who actually cared what happened to her at the end of the day. She was deeply in love with Finn and sometimes thought that he could easily be her best friend in the world. Tina had been there for everything, and she had shared more than one giggled-filled Diva Off with Mercedes over the years. She'd come to love Quinn and Santana and Brittany almost like sisters, a feat unimaginable four years before, and Mike and Puck were just as protective over as they were their own biological siblings. And Blaine, sweet Blaine, he would always be her Tony. However, it was Kurt, with flawless skin and angelic voice and New York ambitions, that understood her best. It was he that became her best friend; it was he who would hold her together when everything fell apart just a few weeks into her arrival to the Big Apple. He had taught her a lot of things over the years but the one of friendship was the most important.

* * *

**_Tell the truth._**  
"Something happened, Finn," she said vaguely when he showed up in New York. It should have been a great thing, this visit after they'd spent the entire summer apart. She shouldn't have felt guilty because he left. Well, she left, but he made her go. He wasn't that far behind, or so she had thought, but then he had ended up staying in Lima. "I've…there's been someone else."

He looked at her with big, wet eyes, and it was the first time Rachel could remember hating herself in a very long time. She knew that she had just broken his heart, but she loved him too much to given him anything other than the truth. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't lie to you," she sobbed quietly. She tried to reach out for him, but he wouldn't let her touch him. Brody suddenly didn't feel worth it, feel worth _this._ "I love you, Finn. You have to believe me, I'm so sorry."

Things hadn't really gotten better after that, and he had headed back to Lima without forgiving her. They were officially over, not that they had really been together for months. She didn't answer when Brody called that night for three days after that. She just holed up in the apartment with her favorite musicals and a gallon of vegan ice cream. And Coldplay, she played a lot of Coldplay.

* * *

**_And overuse "I love you."_**  
She'd always been someone that was really in touch with her emotions, and Rachel knew that she had the habit of smothering the people around her. She had constantly walked that fine line when she was with Finn. Kurt was a little more at her level and didn't mind sharing every little thing that happened. Santana, however, was much different. She didn't like to talk about her emotions.

Rachel didn't really ask too many questions when the Latina showed up on their doorstep seeking shelter after the sing-off with Sam back in Lima. She had just offered up her couch and found her some Chinese leftovers in the fridge before heading off to bed. Santana never really offered up any explanation either, just sort of announced that she was staying even if Rachel and Kurt didn't want her to. Kurt tried in vain to argue but Rachel knew it was fruitless. In fact, she didn't really try to delve into what was going on until after she caught Santana crying one afternoon.

"She chose him and I loved her the best way I knew how and it still wasn't good enough."

Rachel quickly understood that Brittany had chosen Sam despite anything Santana might have said, and a secretly insecure girl like Santana was left feeling like she wasn't good enough. She didn't really have the words to make it alright. There was nothing she could say or do that would make this truly okay. Instead, Rachel climbed onto the couch next to Santana and wrapped her arms around her friend. "I love you, Santana," she whispered, "and Brittany does too. It was good enough. _You_ are good enough."

It's something Rachel ends up saying a lot Santana's first year in New York.

* * *

**_Go to work._**  
Mercedes called Rachel late one night when she was in Los Angeles working on her album, just a few weeks before she would in Lima working with Mike on the music video. "What if I'm not good enough?" she asked worriedly over the line. "Don't tell Kurt I said that."

She giggled in response at her friend's temporary panic. They shared a lot more things than just memories of a winning Glee team; they shared a passion for music and an awesome best friend. They also both shared an insecurity about his harsh criticism. "You are good enough. You're the only one who has out sung me, right?"

"Yeah, I should have been Maria, huh?" Mercedes teased her. "Seriously, Rach, I'm scared. This is, like, everything I've ever wanted. What if no one likes it?"

"Mercedes, you have worked hard," Rachel insisted. "You have put everything into making this album show the world exactly who you are. You are the consummate diva. Even I have something to learn from you. The world is going to fall in love with your voice, just like we all did. You keep working hard and I know that it's going to be amazing because _you_ are amazing."

"Thanks, girl," she replied softly before taking a deep breath. "So tell me about this Adam guy Kurt's been talking about…"

* * *

**_Do your best._**  
Rachel picked up the phone to call Tina three weeks before Regionals. It was the Asian's first (and only) year as Glee's female lead, and she knew from personal experience the kind of pressure that could put on someone. However, as soon as she started to dial the number, Rachel had this moment where she knew it wasn't the right thing. Tina could handle this. In order to truly be the lead, she needed to be allowed to do this her own way.

Instead, Rachel opened her laptop and headed over to the website for her favorite Lima florist. Twenty minutes later, she had found the perfect bouquet and had them scheduled to arrive to the dressing room just before show time. She fussed over writing the perfect note before coming up with three words that pretty much summed up everything: _Do your best._

Rachel was the first person Tina called after everything was over. "We did it, Rachel! We won!"

* * *

**_Don't outsmart your common sense_.**  
"Rachie, Sam and I are getting married!"

"You're what, Britt?"

"We're getting married," Sam answered over the phone. "The world is going to end in a few days, so we decided we wanted to spend the rest of the time we have left together. I proposed with a ring and everything. Coach Beiste is going to marry us in an official Mayan wedding. We know you have finals and won't be able to make it back to Ohio in time, but we're still calling everyone to tell them."

Rachel felt relief wash over her as she realized that their wedding was anything but official. Still, she admired their innocent view of love and marriage. Maybe if she had Brittany's way of looking at the world, she would still be with Finn. "I'm sorry I won't be there. Where are you registered? I'll have to send you a gift."

"Duh, Rachie, we didn't register," Brittany laughed. "The world's ending, remember?"

Well, there is no arguing with logic. "Of course, Britt," she retorted. "So tell me about your dress."

* * *

**_Never let your prayin' knees get lazy._**  
Rachel flew to Chicago like everyone else when they got the news. There had been an accident, a wet stage or something, and Mike Chang had shattered his knee. She got in somewhere after 2, unable to catch the earlier flight with Santana and Kurt because of a final. Rachel knew the hospital probably wouldn't let her in to see him since visiting hours were long over, but she decided to head by the hospital anyhow. She was only a little surprised when she found Quinn alone at his bedside, holding his hands with her head bent over.

"Quinn?" The blonde looked up and smiled at her friend and former enemy. "What are you doing?"

"Just praying," she answered. "He hasn't been awake yet, has no idea what even happened after the surgery. The doctors said he'd probably wake up in the morning. They wanted his body to have a little time to get stable before he finds out the results."

"Which are?"

"Undecided. It's going to take a lot of therapy if he wants to dance again, but if anyone can make it back to that stage, it's Michael Chang," Quinn said affectionately. Rachel had never known the two of them to be particularly close, but she could tell that Quinn respected the dancer. They all did, with his eternal patience and amazing grace. "Do you…do you want to pray with me?"

"Mike's a Buddhist."

"And I'm a Christian and you're Jewish, but I figure a prayer is a prayer, and Mike can use as many of them as he can get right now," Quinn explained. She reached down and folded Rachel's little hand in hers. Quinn was right. It didn't really matter which words they said, they all had the same intent and meaning.

* * *

**_And love like crazy._**  
Rachel left New York a very different person than she had she had come. She had still been Finn's girlfriend when she arrived, a name she had worn proudly but had to admit had let her lose a little bit of her identity. She had been okay with that as long as he had been Rachel's boyfriend and half of the Glee power couple. However, time and distance had shown her that maybe that wasn't the best thing if she wanted to grow beyond Lima. Some things were meant for high school and sad as it made her, maybe Finchel was one of them.

Her freshman year of college had taught her many important lessons, and she had thrived on living in the city. She had her first supporting role on Broadway under her belt. She had her first illicit affair. She had gotten over Finn and survived a year with Kurt and Santana under one very small roof and had allowed herself to be okay with not always be the best in a room. She had done all these things and she had survived it all with the same smile on her face and gold stars in her eyes.

She was thinking about how hard it had been to leave last summer when she pulled into the station in Lima. Saying goodbye to her friends and Finn on the platform had been one of the hardest moments of her life, but somewhere along the way, it had also turned out to be one of the best. It had changed her instantly, and without it, she wasn't sure she would have been ready for New York. It made her grow up right then and there, and sometimes when she thought back about looking at them in through the window, she doesn't just see them waving or Finn running along. She saw fingertips tracing a heart and the virtual radio silence they'd had in the months since.

And she probably should have been more shocked when he was waiting for her that warm May evening when she stepped off the train with her stupid little pink suitcase rolling behind her. But Rachel isn't at all surprised to see Noah waiting for her, hands in his pockets and his freshly shaved head tucked to his chest. They don't say much when he reaches for the trolley bag and leads her out to his truck. He doesn't say anything when she slides across the bench seat to press her hand to his thigh while he drives and she doesn't say anything when his free arm finds a natural home around her shoulders when they end up in the empty parking lot at McKinley.

"How'd you know I was coming home tonight?"

"Satan called," he shrugged. "Said your dads were out of town and that you were gonna grab a cab."

"So you just showed up?"

"Where I belonged," he replied without much thought. "I always show up."

Rachel had flashes of memories of all the times he had just sort of appeared when she needed him, almost as if he was ready to pop out at any moment and play her personal superhero. "Yeah," she whispered before letting her eyes settle on the stars through his dirty windshield. "What are you doing this summer, Noah?"

He muttered noncommittally and lifted his left shoulder up in a weak shrug. "Dunno, what are we doing, Berry?"

"I don't know, Noah, but we'll figure it out."

And three months later, the only thing either of them had figured out was that Puck loved Rachel and that Rachel was going to have to sacrifice part of her closet to make room for Noah's clothes.

**_FIN._**

* * *

**_Lyrics credit to Lee Brice's "Love Like Crazy."_**


	2. Puck

**_Don't make it bad._**  
He only talks to her that first year after high school, the one where he drifts aimlessly between California and Ohio and she slips into some stupid illicit affair with one of her married professors. He tells her immediately that it's not her when he sees her at Thanksgiving, but Quinn smiles at him in that overly sweet, fake way that she always had. He can see that same hellcat beneath the surface, the one-time rebel who would become the eventual mother of his daughter. He would always love her because of Beth, but he knows standing there in the high school auditorium that he can stop liking her just because of one drunken night and a few mistaken kisses.

* * *

**_Don't be afraid._**  
Puck is the only person that Santana calls when she heads for New York. She's scared when she leaves Lima without any real idea of what she is doing. He knows this probably before she even does, which is why he spends four hours talking to her while she's on the train and sure that she can actually fall asleep.

"Berry isn't the only one who's meant to be a star, San," he promises her somewhere between Columbus and Pittsburgh, and when she doesn't say anything sarcastic in return, he's almost sure that she believes him. "You've never let yourself doubt anything before, so don't start on me now."

She kind of laughs then at his demanding ways, something she used to benefit from a few years ago when it was just the two of them in a janitor's closet. "You know I love Britt and everything, but you really are my best friend," she confides. He knows just how much those words mean when she says them. "You really believe I can do this?"

"Not a doubt in the world," he assures her. "But you know you can call me anytime and I'll remind you."

* * *

_**Anytime you feel the pain, refrain.**  
_Puck was actually a little surprised that Mercedes called him at all when they ended up in California. They hadn't really been close since the time they dated in sophomore year and he accidently blurted something out that he was Beth's father. She'd always drifted between the girls and Kurt, sometimes hanging out with Artie and temporarily stopping off the fall in love with Sam.

But when she finds out that her aforementioned paramour has found himself as the other half of a very blonde couple, Mercedes sort of breaks down a little. Puck turns up at her tiny apartment with some cheap bottle of wine he scammed off the lady down the hall and listens while she cries over the puffy-lipped boy she still considers to be the love of her young life. He doesn't think about his own failed relationships because he doesn't want to lament with her. Puck just wants her to stop crying long enough to make sure she's okay so that he can make his escape.

"You're in LA, Mercedes," he reminds her. "You're recording an album and Sam is worried about things like class elections and biology tests. You guys are in totally different places right now and that might change someday, but for right now, it is what it is. You're so much bigger than Lima, always have been."

Mercedes tells him later that it sounds like he's talking about someone else entirely, but Puck doesn't want to thinks about what that might've meant.

* * *

**_Don't let me down._**  
It still hurts sometimes when it looks at Finn because it reminds him of all the _really_ bad things he's done to screw over his supposed best friend. He's known the kid since they were like six, when Finn decided that he wanted to jump off the monkey bars at recess and Puck stopped him just in time from doing something really stupid. There are times when it's the other way around and Finn stops him, and Puck thinks that's why they make such good friends. They're like brothers really, something neither of them had growing up, and Puck thinks it's sort of pathetic that they're the only consistent male influences either had as kids.

That's why he throws in the towel in LA after the whole Finchel breakup thing. He says it's because money didn't pan out or the jobs dried up or he just lost interest. However, he sees his friend struggling with trying to find his place while still in Lima, and Puck knows that Finn needs him. It's the same reason he decides he wants to write, because he can do it anywhere, even from a dorm room he really doesn't belong in when Finn finally heads to OSU. He pushes Finn to be better because he is better. He's always known that, and he hopes that his best friend does too.

* * *

**_Let it out and let it in, begin_.**  
Blaine shows up outside his mom's house, clearly drunk, some time around spring break. He hasn't seen the kid more than a handful of times since graduation, but Puck has missed the Hobbit in his own strange way. They had bonded over Fight Club and he considered him a friend. Whatever, the kid was cool.

"I'm gonna propose to Kurt and Sam said that it was a stupid idea."

"It is," Puck agreed while trying to help his friend balance on his feet. "If both Sam and I think it's stupid, you should probably listen. We're not exactly known for being smart."

Blaine grimaced at him. "Hey, Sam is smart! He's my best friend," he said defensively. "And you're intelligent too, Puck. You can read people, have street smarts, as they say."

"Whatever, man, your plan is still stupid," Puck deadpanned. He had thought it was dumb when Finn had given Rachel that engagement ring last year, and look how that turned out. "Get him back, declare your man love for him, whatever you gotta do. Just don't propose, Hobbit, you got all the time in the world."

"But he's in New York and he's drifting further away every single day," Blaine argued sadly.

Puck shrugged mysteriously. "If he's yours to have, you'll get him back."

* * *

**_Make it better._**  
Puck wasn't the same guy who had graduated high school by the skin of his teeth. That kid hadn't had a single clue about what he wanted to do with his future. He wasn't even sure that he had one that didn't include pumping gas, prison or death. But sometime over the course of the year, he had figured out that he might have a story to tell and that he could do that anywhere and maybe New York was where he should make his new dreams come true.

Santana pays him back for that phone call last winter by telling him that Rachel is coming home one night in May. He shows up and waits for her train, makes it seem like it's not that big of a deal even though it's the biggest. They start spending a lot of time together and Puck tells Finn from the very beginning. He has learned his lesson and prays that his best friend understands. Finn doesn't, not really, but they still manage to not let it destroy things all over again.

He finally asks her to be his girl one night in July when they're lying on a blanket in her backyard, her gazing up at the stars and him gazing at her. It's just a soft, "You're mine," murmured as he rubs his thumb absently over her wrist, and her smile is brighter than any constellation could ever hope to be when she agrees with a surprisingly simple, "Yes."

She doesn't bother even asking if he is coming back to New York with her by the time mid-August settles over Lima. She just shows up at his house with a new oversized suitcase and a trunk full of cardboard boxes for him to unload. They spend two days packing and tell his mother over spaghetti at Breadstix. Rachel tells him that she loves him for the first time that night and it's the first time he's said it back to anyone other than his mom, his sister and Beth since he had told Quinn at the hospital.

* * *

**Lyrics credit to "Hey Jude" by The Beatles.**


	3. Artie

**_One, you're like a dream come true._**  
He supposes that it makes sense somehow that he spends the first night of senior year sitting with Tina in the choir room, both of them hunched over a pile of sheet music. There would have been a time not too long ago, maybe a year or so before, when this was he could imagine. So much has happened since and they've both fallen in love with other people. He sort of has a crush on Sugar now anyhow, and she's clearly still in love with Chang.

"We have to take Nationals this year, Artie," she insists as she discards yet another Journey song from Mr. Schue's pile of recommendations. "We have to prove that it wasn't just a fluke, that we don't need Rachel and Finn and Mercedes to win. We have to prove that we're good enough to do this."

He knows that Tina has always felt like she didn't quite stack up against the other powerful voices in Glee. Just because she didn't belt out like Mercedes or scream Diva like Rachel didn't mean that she wasn't just as equally as talented as them. She had a quiet grace, this backbone of a voice that you could build entire numbers around. It gives him an idea, a point of inspiration that he keeps secret then but tells their choir director immediately the next day.

Artie isn't even a little bit surprised when she brings down the house with the Imogen Heap song at Nationals.

* * *

**_Two, just wanna be with you._**  
After the terrible way things with Brittany ended sophomore year, he had just wanted to have fun. It's why he spent most of his junior year hanging out with his friends and flirting with whatever girls looked his way. It wasn't until Sugar caught his attention that he thought about wanting anything more. She was pretty and bubbly and kind of sweet. Of course, Rory kind of ended up getting her, but then he went back to Ireland and Artie knew that he had one more chance.

"Give me a ride to chemistry?" she asks one morning while she's waiting for him at his locker, bending slightly to check her plum lip gloss in the little mirror stuck to the metal door. She doesn't wait for permission before throwing herself into his lap, laying her legs over his thighs as he heads off down the hallway toward the science classrooms. She hops off when he stops short outside the doorway. "Thanks for the lift, cutie."

She pops her bubblegum in a way that should be annoying but he just finds it endearing. Before he knows it, Artie is reaching for her wrist and pulling her back into his lap. She's caught off-guard when he closes his mouth over hers, but it doesn't take long for her to start to respond. "I'll pick you up after," he winks when he ends the kiss. Sugar is still breathless when he rolls away toward his English class.

* * *

_**Three, girl, it's plain to see that you're the only one for me.**  
_"Do you think you can tutor me in math? You're the only one I can ask!"

Artie looked up from his guitar in Glee, surprised to find Brittany towering over him. They don't really talk much now and haven't since the breakup two years ago. It was almost like someone had forgotten that they'd had any past at all. Everyone had heard about her fluke test scores and was still trying to figure out how it was possible.

"I'm just worried that I won't know enough when I get to MIT and I really want to do good because Sammy told me that they are like really into math and science there. I tried to watch Star Trek to learn some stuff but I just got super confused. Sam wanted me to try to watch the Matrix, but it hurts my eyes."

He blinked twice at her, still not sure if he was really having this exact conversation with a girl who had been accepted into MIT with nearly perfect SAT scores. There was no way this could be real. After all, they were talking about a girl who endlessly ranted about her cat's bizarre habits, smelling Santana's armpits and her very strange cheese-inspired web show. None of those things added up to a genius.

"My mom tried to help too. She got me some of those workbooks and flash cards from the teachers' supply store, but I just ended up using the stickers in the back to make a Get Well card for Coach Sylvester after Mr. Schuester said something had crawled into her butt. I don't think she knows that it's living in there though because she didn't know what I was talking about."

Artie watched silently as she reached up and adjusted her hat. This one was shaped like a cat, with pointy ears and yarn whiskers. It was her favorite one right now and she'd actually worn it when one of the guys from MIT had been there last week to talk to her and Miss Pillsbury about some things she should be working on before her move to Massachusetts. They must be used to that kind of weird stuff at MIT because the guy didn't even seem all that surprised, just mostly amused.

"Rachel helped me make some online when I was Skyping with San the other night. We can just use those. They have cartoon unicorns and stars and stuff. They're totally amazing! I'll even let you reward me with Cheerios like my dad does when I do tricks on the trampoline in the backyard. He thinks it's weird but our dog really responds to it when we give him a treat for rolling over and playing dead. Positive reinforcement, right? Anyways, I'll see you a six, Artie. Don't be late, okay?"

Brittany bounded off to start working on her duet with Sam, and Artie picked up his phone to cancel the online COD tournament he had planned with Mike and Puck.

* * *

**_Four, repeat steps one through three._**  
Kitty reminds him too much of Quinn for that to ever be a good thing. She is really good at being pretty and flirting to get what she wants, and from the first day when she shows up in the choir room in her Cheerios uniform, he knows that she is going to break someone's heart. With Quinn, it had been Finn and Puck and Sam. With Kitty, it ends up being Ryder and maybe even Marley a little. She's vicious in an over way that Quinn never was, totally upfront about being willing to stab someone in the back, the side, the front, whatever it takes to be on top. Maybe that's more Santana than Quinn, he's not sure, but it's terrible to watch nonetheless. And then the school shooting happens.

They all heard her confession to Marley when they were locked in the choir room, the way she was sobbing and how she ran over to Unique afterward. Kitty holds his hand afterward when they're waiting for her mom to pick her up. She breaks up with Puck the next day without any real explanation and starts showing up to practice early to help set up the chairs. Artie thinks it might be fake for awhile until he catches her braiding Becky Jackson's hair one day for Cheerio practice after Brittany had left. With the lanky dancer gone, Kitty has taken her under her wing of protection.

He's surprised when she asks him to prom. She insists that it's not because no one else asked (Sam said he would go with her after Brittany couldn't come back, Ryder offers when his first choice says no). She genuinely wants to go with him, even if it means riding in the back of his parents' special van rather than a limo. She looks beautiful when he picks her up with a red rose corsage in a little plastic box in hand. Her mom cries and takes photos. His parents wear out their camera battery doing much of the same. They meet up with Marley and Jake as well as Tina and Sam at Breadstix for dinner. They have a good time with all of their friends in the big ballroom at the Hilton downtown. Artie's not surprised when she gets the glittery crown that Quinn never did, but he is surprised when he thinks about how she deserves it.

* * *

**_Five, make you fall in love with me._**  
She shows up at his graduation, and it's hard to imagine that they ever shared the bond of the chair. Quinn is strong, walking on four-inch heels as if she was ever anything but completely mobile. There are no traces of the accident that nearly taken her life just one year before. She had completely healed in a way that he never would, at least on the outside.

"I hear you're headed to New York come fall," she smiles as she hugs him. "That's not too far from Boston. I'll have to make sure to come to the city more often. Maybe you could come see me."

There had been this moment before Joe came along that he thought maybe they could have something. He had been the only one that had understood what Quinn was going through, and when she had made up her mind to walk again, he had felt a little bit left behind. It had been so hard watching Teen Jesus help her in a way that he couldn't, and even though he was thrilled when she had taken those first steps in front of everyone at prom, he still felt a little sad because he knew he had lost her then.

They hadn't really talked all year, just a stray email here or there and the single visit when she came home to see her parents at Thanksgiving. The others had been better about keeping in touch, but it had felt like Quinn had wanted to forget pretty much everything that came before Yale once she left town. He wants to believe that she'll be around when he hits the East Coast come fall, but the way she abandoned all of them (him) last summer made him fear the opposite would be true. Still, the way she looks down at him beneath her eyelashes tells him that he's going to give her second chances. Guys like him always give girls like her a free pass.

She comes to visit him the second Saturday in August, when he was settling into his apartment in Brooklyn a little bit before classes start and she has some free time before she has to be back at Yale. They explore his neighborhood and try this little bistro he had read about online and head to Central Park to watch an outdoor movie with Rachel and Puck. She kisses him beneath the streetlight outside this awesome vinyl shop on Bleecker and then again while they're waiting for the subway. They're officially together by the time they say goodbye Sunday night at the train station and he feels like they've both gotten some kind of redemption.

* * *

**Lyrics credit to "Back at One" by Brian McKnight.**


	4. Brittany

**_This is how it starts_.**  
Brittany feels like the beginning of her second senior year is a lot like the first, only Santana's not there to hold her hand during Glee practice. They're still together, still happy, still in love with each other as ever. And then Santana makes new friends and starts to get into campus life and Brittany realizes that very little is actually the same as last year. Even if there are still some of the same faces in the choir room, even Glee is different. She misses Rachel's fits and Kurt's sarcasm and Puck's curse words.

She's the only one surprised when they break up. However, everyone is surprised when that breakup turns into a breakdown. She wants to emulate Britney in any way possible and probably would have if it were not for some interference. Santana doesn't bother to check in on her, and Brittany doesn't learn until later that it's because it hurts too much.

It's only after Brittany figures out that she's fine and actually even better than fine that Santana realizes that she's the one who is messed up. She shows up at McKinley and quits the squad back in Louisville. She shows up and Brittany breaks her heart and it hurts for both of them all over again. It only stops hurting when Santana goes to New York. Brittany is too busy with Sam and Regionals and MIT to figure out what that means. She's not even sure she wants to know. She just knows that when she gets to Cambridge, she misses Santana's throaty laugh and Sam's silly impressions with equal parts of her heart.

* * *

**_Lightning strikes the heart._**  
Tina might be the first one to point out Blaine's crush on Sam, but he certainly isn't the first one who notices. No, Brittany thinks she knows even before the Warbler but she's just too nice to point it out. Sam needs a best friend and Blaine's been really sad lately and their friendship seems to kill two birds with one stone. She doesn't even mind sharing Sam. Blaine is a good guy and after his break up with Kurt, she has to think he's learned about not crossing lines.

"I think Blaine likes me," Sam tells her one night when they're making a fort out of Barbie sheets and couch cushions in her basement. "He keeps staring at me and stuff. It's weird."

"I think it's nice," she corrects him patiently before wrapping her arm around him. "He just sees what I see, and that's that you are the most wonderful and special person in the whole world."

Brittany is proud of Sam when becomes proud of Blaine's crush and promises his best friend that it's "totally not weird" when he finally confesses it three months later.

* * *

**_It goes off like a gun_.**  
Brittany has never more scared than she is when she's alone in the bathroom. She tries her hardest to be as quiet as possible and is absolutely terrified when her tears make a soft sound when they trip into the toilet below. She keeps thinking about Sam and how she fought with Santana the last time they talked and wonders uselessly where Mike Chang is right now. Anything to distract her from being scared, she thinks, something has to distract her.

Mr. Schue shows up and she clings tightly to Sam when they're reunited in the choir room. It's night when they're eventually shuffled outside like everyone else to wait for their parents. His mom comes first, and he says that they'll wait until her mom or dad can come. She promises that she's okay because she can tell that Mrs. Evans didn't drive all that way from Kentucky to stand there and wait with her. Finn eventually shows up with a note from her father's secretary so that he can drive her home. Her parents had flown to Indianapolis before the shooting and hadn't been able to get a flight out. They had rented a car and would be home by morning.

"Thanks for coming," she says softly when she's buckled into his passenger seat, and Finn doesn't think he's ever seen her look sadder. It's worse than when she had her breakdown and the time when she lost Artie's magic comb and even when Lord Tubbington wouldn't talk to her for two weeks during freshman year after the cat had caught Puck sneaking out of her window.

He decides that he'll do anything to make her smile, so instead of heading for her house, he turns the opposite way and goes straight to the park. It's late and there's no one there, but he knows that this will work like a charm. He finds two pieces of bread in the lunch he'd packed that morning before leading her down to the pond to feed the ducks. It's cold but she slips off her feet to pad around in the bare grass. She convinces him that it's a good idea, and both of them end up sick the whole next week.

Finn doesn't even think about complaining when he remembers her smile that night.

* * *

**_We could be the stars._**  
She's flattered when Kurt calls her to see if she wants to be one of his featured subjects on the Vogue blog. She's never really thought about the way she dresses as being fashionable. It's just fun and her. He comes home for a long weekend with a really professional camera and takes notes in this tiny little reporter's notebook with a sterling silver pen.

"Do you like New York?" she asks while they're waiting for the photos to download from the camera onto his Mac Book. His eyes light up and she knows his answer immediately. "Do you ever miss Lima?"

"Every day, all the time," he admits. She thinks that maybe he misses Blaine and Finn but hopes that he misses all of them. "But Ohio was never going to be big enough to hold me. People like us, Brittany, the unicorns, we're meant to soar."

"Like a Pegasus?"

"Yeah, Britt, like a Pegasus."

* * *

**_Fallin' from the sky._**  
Brittany danced every day for six years next to Mike Chang. They took classes together at the best studio in the area and then served as Dance Co-Captains for Glee. Everything she had ever done that was good, _really_ good, had included him, and the first time she has to lead Booty Camp without him is hard.

Kitty and Jake are the only two newbies that have any natural movement talent. Marley is subpar at best, and Ryder is like the second coming of Finn Hudson. Tina and Blaine are as strong as ever and Sam can still move. Unique is basically Mercedes' replacement and will serve find in the background or swaying in the front during her solos. But there isn't anyone as strong as her, no new Mike Chang that will allow her to showcase what she's best at.

She tells him this when they Skype right before the end of first semester. He's in his tiny dorm apartment in Chicago between classes at Joffrey. She's trying to get the camera angled right so she can show him this ballet choreo she's been trying to work out. He gives her a few clues about how to motivate Ryder since he had always been pretty good at kicking Finn into gear.

"So do you still like your new partner?"

"Yeah, Melanie is nice," he answers with a wry smile. "But she's way too short and she's only really strong in ballet and jazz. My old partner was a lot taller and way more talented. There wasn't anything that girl couldn't pull off. She was amazing." Brittany smiled at the screen and blushed prettily. She knew she was talented, always had been. "Seriously, Britt, why are going to MIT? You know you should be dancing. You're like me. It's what you're meant to do."

She wants to tell him that it's because she's scared. She's scared that no one else will ever have her. She's scared that she won't be good enough. She's scared that she'll fail and won't have a backup. She's scared that she's too dumb to make MIT work. She's just plain scared, but she doesn't tell him. She just smiles and says, "There'll be time for that after I prove that I really am smart."

He doesn't say he told her so when she lasts one semester in Cambridge. He just gets her an audition with his instructor in Chicago and starts looking for two-bedroom apartments on Craig's List even before she officially gets in.

* * *

**_Shining how we want._**  
"Do you remember that time when we did 'Born That Way' and had matching shirts?" Brittany asks Puck a couple weeks after graduation. They're hanging out in Rachel's basement at one of her parties while her fathers are out of town. "I don't think we're stupid anymore, do you?"

"Never were, Britt," he tells her between sips of beer. "In fact, I think we're the smartest people here."

"Well, I am a genius," she agrees with a bright smile. "I did get into MIT."

"I didn't, but I know people. You know people. We see the world more clearly than anyone I know," he tells her as he watches Rachel dancing with Quinn and Kurt. "That's what makes us special, Britt."

"You really think I'm special?"

"Most special girl I know."

"Even more special than Quinn and Rachel?"

His eyes flicker back over to the blonde and the brunette. "Not even close," he answers easily, and she thinks she doesn't want to know if it's the truth or not. Instead, she steals his beer and takes a drink of it before heading over to dance with Sam some more. She sees Puck press Rachel into a corner later and knows then exactly where they're headed. They're a little more open about their new relationship two weeks later when Artie has a pool party at his parents' house.

"Still more special than Rachel?" she teases him before dunking under the water to avoid his splashes.

Puck laughs when she resurfaces. He nods and then floats on his back toward Rachel.

She sees him with Quinn and Beth at the park the week after that. They're playing on the swings and look like the family that could have been when she comes upon them. They both wave her over and she spends a few minutes talking about how Shelby had brought her to town to visit her birth parents and she can tell they're both really happy to have some time alone with her. When Beth decides that she wants to go play in the sand, Quinn rolls her eyes happily and treads across the playground to oblige the little girl. Puck is about to follow when Brittany grabs his wrist.

"Even more special than Quinn, the mother of your child?"

"The specialist of the special," he winked, already starting to walk backward as he headed for Quinn.

Two days later, Brittany is downtown getting ice cream when she seems him coming out of a little shop. He has a red gift bag in his hand and a big grin on his face. "Just the girl I was going to see," he mused happily. "I thought I would get these to get us a little good fashion karma." Five minutes later, he follows her down the sidewalk toward the ice cream parlor wearing matching "I'm With Special" t-shirts.

* * *

**_Brighter than the sun_.**  
Brittany kind of expects it to be a big deal when she ends up with Sam again, but it isn't. In fact, it isn't anything special at all, and that kind of makes it perfect anyhow. They're just playing Mario Kart in front of the air conditioning vent in the middle of July while Sam's supposed to be watching his siblings. She beats him easily when they get to the Star Cup, and she celebrates by pressing her lips to his. He deepens the kiss and tangles his fingers in her long blonde lips. She grins and says "I really missed the taste of your Lip Chap while we were broken up." He laughs, and just like that, they're back together.

* * *

**Lyrics credit to "Brighter Than the Sun" by Colbie Caillat.**


	5. Finn

_**Step by step, heart to heart.**__  
_He calls Quinn three days into Basic because he just knows she'll understand. She has known him, has loved him in one way or another, longer than any of his friends except maybe Puck, but the guy has never exactly been all that sensitive.

He's scared, more scared than he's ever been, and he knows that he should have called Rachel. She is supposed to be the girl he loves; she does have his heart. It's just that she'll somehow make it about her and he needs this to be about him, and Quinn just listens until he's used up all his words. He can hear her soft breath in his ear and it tethers him back to sophomore year when the most complicated thing in his life is which party they were going to hit up first on a Friday night.

"It's okay to be scared," she assures him. "You don't have to be everyone's hero, Finn. I just hope that you're already mine. No matter what has happened, that part hasn't changed. You saved me a long time ago, and I have no doubt that you're going to save someone else."

She's not the first person he calls after she leaves the Army. That's his mom, and even then, it's only to tell her that he's on his way to New Haven.

* * *

_**Left, right, left.**_  
He signs up for a dance class on a whim his first semester at OSU. He thought that Puck might be able to help him with his footwork because he was pretty decent back in high school, but any semblance of grace either of them had back then has already disappeared by the time his first recital rolls around. Kurt is busy in New York and he's not on the best terms with Rachel after that whole thing at Schue's failed wedding. He's still barely talking to his mentor, and Blaine seems to be busy with Tina and Sam all the time. He thinks about asking Britt and then she disappears to MIT. He settles on calling his favorite tutor from high school and hopes that he can learn the steps over video.

"Okay, Finn, cross your left leg over your right and pivot," Mike instructs him, as patient as ever. "Keep your weigh on your planted foot and try not to make your arms so awkward."

"Dude, it's hard," Finn argues as he leans down to squint into the camera. He is frustrated and Mike must sense that because he holds his fist up toward the screen like he always used to back when they were in Glee. "Thanks, man, I needed that."

"You got this," Mike promises, and for the first time all afternoon, Finn starts to believe him.

* * *

_**We all fall down like toy soldiers.**_  
The call comes in the middle of the night, and Finn isn't sure what time it is when he reaches blindly for his cell phone. He doesn't check the screen but hearts the sobs and knows that it's his brother. "Kurt, what's wrong? Where are you? Do I need to come there?"

His cries are temporarily halted by a puff of unexpected laughter. "No, of course not, Finn. It's the middle of the night," he chuckles. "Blaine cheated on me."

"There must be something in the water," Finn sighs, and it slips out before he even thinks about it. He doesn't want to put Kurt in the middle, not when he's living with Rachel and needs things not to be awkward. Besides, Finn knows he doesn't really have the right to be upset. They were broken up, but it still hurt like hell. "Sorry, bro, what happened?"

Finn listens while Kurt tells the story, and he hears the moment where it goes from sadness to anger. He listens a little longer as his brother gets winded and then eventually, eerily quiet. It's always a cycle, and after two years of living with the guy, he's got this down pat. "I just…it hurts, Finn," Kurt whispers. "He said he felt lonely, basically blamed it on me. Doesn't he get the one that I left everything? I'm the one who's alone. How could he do this?"

"I don't really have an answer for that," Finn admits. "But I do know that Blaine loves you and that he's probably really sorry. He's probably a lot like Rach has been. You told me that I needed to listen to her, and when you're ready, I think you'll need to listen to him too."

"I guess," he lamented. He's quiet for a moment. "How do we ever forgive them?"

"I don't know, man, but if you figure it out, can you fill me in?"

* * *

_**Bit by bit, torn apart.**_  
He never tells anyone that he found Santana alone in the auditorium that day after she had her infamous sing-off with Sam. Instead, he sits in the sixth seat of the fifth row, two rows behind her, and waits until she finishes crying. She knows that he's there but doesn't acknowledge it until she's ready to leave. She just sort of waits for him at the end of the row, her hand reaching out for him, and clings to him until he tucks her in the passenger seat of her car. They end up grabbing food from this old diner and heading out to the abandoned piers at the lake. She eats her cheeseburger in silence and it briefly reminds him of that night in the motel. Santana climbs across the seat and presses herself after she's finished and messes with the dial on his radio until Sade starts to fill the air. He's a little freaked out because he doesn't know what to do with her. He's never seen Santana like this. And then she leans up, presses her lips to the apple of his cheek and hums happily.

"Thanks, Finnocence," she murmurs before her eyes fall shut. "I'm glad that we're friends."

* * *

_**We never win.**_  
Sam finds him after the fight with Mr. Schue.

"So you kissed another guy's girl yet again?"

Finn frowns. "Man, it wasn't like that."

"It never is, huh, Finn?" he asks him rhetorically. "I know you were just trying to help, but she was engaged to Mr. Schue. Just like Q was my girlfriend when she started kissing you. You never mean to do it, you're just trying to be a nice guy."

"I guess nice guys never win."

"Except nice guys like you, Finn, you always win," Sam bites out bitterly. Finn had no idea that the blonde was still holding resentment for something that happened nearly two years ago. "You know, I always thought that Puck was just a jerk when he said stuff like this, but you keep doing it. You make a mistake and you hide behind the guise of being a nice guy. You smile that smile and the girls forgive you and we look like the assholes for not giving in. It's not fair, man."

"Sam, I'm sorry," Finn replies. "I said it back then, but I should have said it more. I am sorry for getting Quinn to cheat on you. We were friends and I shouldn't have broken Bro Code over a chick."

"She wasn't just a chick," Sam replies. "Not to you and not to me. Not to Puck either, and that's what never made sense to me. You never really forgave him for what happened with Beth, but you didn't really seem to have much of a problem screwing me over to be with her."

Finn pinches the bridge of his nose, knowing that there was no way he could make his friend see it his way. "It was different," he shrugs. "I know that doesn't make it right but it's what I got. It was different because it was Quinn. All this stuff happened, but she still loved me. We were supposed to be together, and I didn't really care about what we did to anyone or even if we got caught. I just wanted her."

"Until you wanted Rachel…"

Finn recoils at Sam's observation. He knows that's how it seems but it's never how he felt. He loved Quinn and he loved Rachel. They were these two separate thoughts.

Sam leaves then and he doesn't bring it up again. Finn sends both girls a bouquet of flowers the next day and tells them that he's sorry. Rachel doesn't even question it when she uploads a photo of the bright pink daisies on Instagram. Quinn links his name on Facebook when she publicly thanks him. Sam doesn't like either of the posts. He just smiles at Finn when they run into each other at the grocery store. Finn thinks that's when Sam finally forgives him.

* * *

_**But the battle wages on for toy soldiers.  
**_Finn and Tina kiss for the first time two weeks after regionals. He's not officially at McKinley anymore and they're just hanging out at his house while she waits for Kurt to pick him up from their parents' house. He's home for spring break, visiting with Blaine, and he's seen how it's hurt her. She's losing the war with love, and he just wants her to win. He tries to bring up her little crush but she brushes it off. She tries to focus on the bad Adam Sandler movie on MTV, but when she starts crying over an insurance commercial, he wants to kiss her to make her feel better. Finn is almost sure it works.

Finn and Tina kiss for the second time on the night that Blaine proposes to Kurt. He finds it ironic how judgmental his brother was when he was the one asking Rachel, but he's happy for the two of them nonetheless. Tina is quiet when they tell the two of them, but she does her best to paint on a happy face when she hugs her best friend. Finn volunteers to take her home from Breadstix so they can go tell Burt and Carole. She presses her lips desperately to his in her driveway, and her lips taste salty from all the tears.

Finn and Tina kiss for the third time after a really long rehearsal for Nationals, after Mr. Schue has spent hours drilling them over the choreography and she looks frazzled beyond relief. He'd forgotten his laptop bag in the choir room when he goes back to get it, surprised to find her asleep across a couple chairs. He kneels down beside her to wake her, brushing back hair from her eyes, but she doesn't respond. It's only when he presses his lips to her forehead that her eyes flutter open. She whispers his name and he has to kiss her again.

Finn and Tina kiss for the fourth time in front of 500 people on the day that she graduates from high school. He's waiting for her at the end of the aisle with a big bouquet of sterling roses (her favorite) and big, stupid grin on his lips. She almost giggles when she bounds the rest of the way down the ramp and into his arms. She buries her face into his neck as he lifts her a little off her feet and he knows that everyone they know is staring. But when she pulls back and presses her forehead to his, he suddenly doesn't care anymore. There is no one else but Tina. The war is over; the battle had been won. They were both starting to believe in love again.

* * *

_**Lyrics credit to "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem**_


	6. Santana

_**No amount of coffee.  
**_It hits Santana on the first day of classes just how far from Lima that Louisville really feels. It feels even further away from New Haven. It's her first day of college ever and her first first day of school without Quinn or Brittany by her side. They had always been together, the three of them, even when Santana decided that she was in love with Brittany and Quinn couldn't be bothered to talk to either of them. Even with all that distance between them, Santana had always known that she could count on her two blonde best friends, and now, it felt like that safety net was gone._**  
**_

So she calls Quinn in a moment of weakness and tries not to sound sad as she balances her latte, her cheerleading bag and her stack of textbooks. "The coffee in Louisville sucks," she breathes into the phone as soon as she hears her answer. "I miss the Lima Bean."

"I guess that's two things you miss about Lima," Quinn teases in response. She's currently walking across the quad and enjoying the careful gaze of a very handsome older man.

"Three things, Quinn," Santana sighs, not even bothering to disguise what she means with those words. She knows that Quinn knows and any resistance to the contrary is completely futile. "I miss you, too."

Quinn giggles in her ear and Santana remembers how that same giggle sounded in her ear when they were whispering together with Brittany during Cheerio meetings. "I meant the coffee and me," she jokes. "C'mon, San, you know we miss you, too. But don't worry, the Unholy Trinity will be reunited soon, you and Britt both have tickets to come see me as soon as you can."

Santana thinks about her girlfriend and their other best friend and smiles. "Wanky."

* * *

_**No amount of crying.**_  
Brittany never knows how many nights Santana spends on the other end of her laptop, signed into the messenger incognito because she needs for the blonde to move on. Santana can see that she is holding her back, which is strange considering she's the one who left Lima. Brittany needs to enjoy her last moments of freedom because Santana would give anything to have them back. She loves her too much to want anything else for her.

Even after she finds out that Britt's taken up with Trouty, Santana just wants her to be free. Sure, she gets that temporary bout of insanity where she thinks about staying in Lima and that whole sing-off debacle happens. But later, when she's alone on the plane staring out at a million twinkling lights below, she gets that it's only this time that she's really left Lima. She'd left her heart behind before, but she was taking it with her now.

She's still cries on the plane though.

* * *

_**No amount of whiskey.**_  
She sits a bottle of Jack down on the coffee table after she figures out what's really going on with Brody, and it's the first time she's seen Rachel Berry do shots. Kurt comes in an hour later to find both his roommates sprawled across the sofa, Santana's head hovering inches from the floor while Rachel's is thrown over the opposite arm. He doesn't even question it as he picks up the bottle and tips the warm liquor down his throat. Blaine had only called him three times that day. Maybe he was moving on.

"We should go out dancing," Rachel suggests, but Santana just puts her palm over the brunette's face and pushes. "Santana, that was rude."

"Can it, Manhands," she says affectionately, referring to a very unbecoming nickname she knew that Rachel hated but Santana still loved to use to get her going. "I think we should just go out drinking. I'm done with other people for awhile. I got you and Beyonce to keep me company."

Kurt grimaces at her use of one of his more common high school aliases. "Or we could stay here and do both," he points out. He scurries to the kitchen and returns with an expensive bottle of champagne his boss at Vogue had gotten but didn't want. He stops momentarily to flip on the stereo so that Whitney is blasting throughout the entire apartment. "There, perfect."

It's kind of a blur after that, at least for Santana and Rachel. Kurt is a little more sober than the girls, perfectly content to watch them make fools of themselves while they make up intricate dance routines in the living room. They end up passed out on the floor around two, and Kurt is kind enough to throw blankets over both of them. He isn't kind enough, however, to stop from uploading a very brief video of them making out to his Facebook page the next morning. Santana laughs when Puck is the first person to "Like" it.

* * *

_**No amount of wine.**_  
Santana hung back at Schue's failed wedding reception and nurses a glass of wine. It's after she's had her moment with Quinn but before she left. Sam shuffled up to her, and Santana thought about how she just can't take this. Right when he looks like he's about to say something to her, Mike Chang swept in and drew her into a slow dance. She looked up at the stealthy Asian with relief in her eyes before pressing her cheek to his shoulder.

"Your heart beat is slow," she mused in her somewhat drunken state. "It's comforting."

He pulled back for a moment and looked down at her. "How is it that we never kissed?"

It's unexpected, which makes her laugh. "Because you loved Tina," she reminded him, "and I loved Britt. Before that, you liked Britt and I was whatever with Puck. Timing, I guess. Besides, we're too good of friends."

Mike patted the small of her back and nodded. Santana took the opportunity to replace her head on his shoulder. He saw Tina waltzing clumsily with Finn nearby. "I still love her, you know."

She caught a glimpse of Brittany laughing as Sam whirled her around the dance floor. "Yeah, me too."

* * *

_**Nothing else will do.**__  
_Santana needed to get out of New York by the time spring rolled around and took the opportunity to head for the West Coast without a second thought. Mercedes was waiting at the gate when she stepped of the plane, and two of them spend the next three hours catching up at this all-night diner a few blocks from her apartment.

"Remember that time we fought over Puck?" Mercedes remembered out of nowhere. "What was that about? It seems so silly now."

Santana knew that no one ever really got what it was like for the two of them. "You were taking something that was mine, even after he stopped being mine," she shrugged, as if this made complete sense. "I needed Puck because he understood me in a time when no one else did. He liked me when I didn't even like myself."

"Probably because the two of you are so much alike," Mercedes decided. "You never did like him with anyone else."

"No one else was ever going to be good enough," she admitted. "He was the same until I got with Britt. She made me real in a way that I never was, in a way that he once told me I was capable of. When that happened, he was happy for us. When that really happens for him, I'll be happy then."

Mercedes arched her eyebrow. "And I didn't make him real?"

"Not even close," Santana said, almost apologetically. "Quinn got kinda close. He cares about Berry too, for whatever reason, but Beth is the only one who has made him real so far. Sam, though, he made you real Mercedes."

She smiled affectionately at the thought of the blonde who now belonged to the Latina's blonde. "Yeah, Sam was good," she mused. "But he's moved on and so have I. You're getting there too, Lopez. You'll be real again."

"I don't know, Aretha," she smiled. "I think I'm gonna go for the fairytale this time."

* * *

_**I've gotta have you.**_  
Santana decided to come back to Lima for the summer, even though Kurt and Rachel were keeping the apartment to spend the break in New York and Brittany was going to stay in Boston to do some weird feline research work. Puck had already abandoned her for the Big Apple by that point to hang out with Berry and Finn had ended up on some trip to Denver with Tina, Mike and Quinn. Blaine was bouncing between the East and West Coasts to visit his brother and his boyfriend, Sam happily following his best friend since he had no plans of his own. Mercedes was still out in LA doing some recording, which meant that she had somehow ended up in Lima with Wheels as her only company.

She showed up at his house early on a Tuesday with her favorite electric blue bikini and a bottle of cheap tequila. She didn't go home until Friday. Artie isn't surprised when she ended up back in his pool by Monday, this time with a yellow and green striped thing that has more straps than a parachute. They don't really talk, just sort of float around each other and drink whatever liquor she's managed to scam off her parents' bottomless supply. They get really drunk that night and Santana decided that it was a good idea to kiss him. Artie can't really kick away from her to refuse.

"Just want you," she muttered between greedy kisses when he asked what she was doing. He knew that she was lonely and bored and maybe a little desperate. He is a good mix of those things himself. "C"mon, it's fun, I'm really good."

"You like girls, Santana."

"So? You know I've been good with boys before, I'm really good at pretending."

He let her kiss him a little more before he finally pressed firmly on her shoulder to give them some much-needed distance. It's messed up in a sad way that he can't handle. "Let's just talk."

"God, you sound like Berry," she bit out. "Or Sam. He always wanted to talk first."

"San, are you okay?"

She looked at him like she knew he was judging her. He wasn't really, well not much anyhow. "Save the pity, Wheels," she snapped angrily. "I just thought I could show you a good time."

"You're so much more than that," he told her softly, and he thought about it how was probably the most honest conversation they'd ever had. "You're a good friend, Santana, the best one I've had this summer. I don't want to mess that up. You're one of the only people I'm gonna know in New York, I can't lose you."

"Okay," she breathed out. She reached for his hand and squeezed before laying back against her raft again. "Thanks, Artie."

She goes back to New York in September with her official new best friend.

* * *

_**Lyrics credit to "Gotta Have You" by The Weepies.**_


	7. Sam

_**I want to be a good man.**__  
_Breaking up with Mercedes was the hardest thing he ever had to do. It was also one of the last things he wanted to do. They had waited so long, fought so hard, to get back together, and it felt like giving up when she came to see him at the Hudson-Hummel household a few days before she was slated to leave LA. He knew that she was there to say goodbye (for good) when she knocked on the door, but knowing it and feeling it were two totally different things.

"I should thank you, Sam," she told him after it was over. He looked up at her beneath floppy blonde hair and tried to smile. "I wouldn't even be leaving if it wasn't for you. I know that might sound like a bad thing, but I don't think it is - for either of us. I want you to have the best senior year you can because you coming back, it made mine."

"My favorite memory of you is always going to be you singing 'I Will Always Love You' in the choir room that day," he remembered. "I knew then that you meant it, and I'd like to think that you still do."

"I do," she confirmed with a shy smile. He reached for her hand then, brushing his thumb absently over her knuckles. "You will always be very special to me, Sam Evans. You're the first man who ever made me feel truly beautiful. You're the first guy I ever gave my heart to, all the rest are gonna have a tall order to stack up against."

They said goodbye and by the time she came back to Lima for Thanksgiving, he was already falling hopelessly in love with Brittany. Mercedes writes a song about him and thanks him in the liner notes.

* * *

_**A do like I should man.**__  
_Sam stood on the stage, watching Finn fight with Mr. Schuester, and he knew that he could have stopped it. He could have stopped his friend from getting too close to Miss Pillsbury while Schue was off in DC. He could have told him that he was ambling into dangerous territory, and someone (everyone) was about to get hurt. He could have pushed him to be honest after what was now known as "The Kiss," but Finn never even told him that it happened. He had just known that it did happen, and now, the two of them were fighting.

His mother had always told him that it was most important to do the right thing. The thing was, in this situation, he wasn't sure what that was. Was he supposed to be loyal to Finn, one of the first and closest friends he had made in Lima? Was he supposed to have Mr. Schuester's back because the guy had become like a mentor and second (well, third after Burt) father to him? Was he supposed to forget that this wasn't the first time that Finn was messing around with someone else's girl? He wanted to do all three but knew that it wasn't an option.

So, instead, he stands there and watches them fight. He watches as Schue takes a swing and Finn recoils and blood slowly starts to drip down the younger man's chin. He watches as their teacher stalks off the stage and some of the girls start to cry and Brittany holds his hand so tightly that he loses feeling in his grip. He watches Finn sulk off the stage in silence and the rest of the Glee Club just stands there. He watches all this and he does nothing.

Later, after he has given Finn a couple aspirin and an icepack and after he's sent Schue a text message to check on him, Sam thinks that maybe this was all he could have done all along.

* * *

_**I want to be the kind of man the mirror likes to see.**_  
Sam has never felt good about himself, not really. He knew that Quinn found him attractive, and Santana pretty much only seemed interested in his body. Brittany must like him too because she's like really enthusiastic when they kiss, but it's still not enough. He loves her, wants to be with her, but he doesn't know what it is.

He knows she doesn't know, so he never holds it against her. It's only after the calendar that anyone really picks up on it, and of course, it has to be Blaine that finally says anything. He's really quiet when he does it, just sort of pushes some full-fat yogurt in his direction and asks if he can skip the gym that afternoon to help him work on a song. When Sam figures that he can just go after, Blaine makes sure that the evening turns into dinner at his parents' house and an offer to help Sam with his chemistry homework.

Sam doesn't change, he just gets better at hiding it. He still eats like he should but he works out twice as hard. He goes to Brittany's house more often because she doesn't ask questions and avoids Blaine as much as he can. It's only after he sees the former Warbler whispering closely with Brittany at her locker one day before school that he knows he's been caught. The two of them turn on him immediately.

There is the whole showdown with the mirror and then Blaine tries again, this time with Brittany. "You might not love what you see when you look in there, but we do. And we know that you love us," Blaine tells him. "So you've got to start doing better. If you're not going to do it for you, do it for Brittany. Do it for both of us, all three of us."

He starts counseling with Miss Pillsbury the next day.

* * *

_**I want to be a strong man.**_  
He hates the choir room, can't stand to be there after the school shooting. And he hates whoever did this to his school because that used to be their safe place, but it was all taken away from them in the blink of an eye. He tries to get over it, to push away the fears, whenever he sees Brittany put on her best brave face every time she goes into the bathroom alone. If she can do it, he can do it. He won't let this change him. It won't define him. It will only make him tell her he loves her a little more often and hold onto her a little bit tighter.

* * *

_**God, I'm asking you to come change me.  
**_"Will you pray with me?"

Joe looks up from where he is plucking a nonsensical melody on his acoustic guitar. They used to be part of the God Squad together before Quinn and Mercedes graduated, but they've barely spoken this year. However, like the good Christian that he is, he nods and pats the empty chair beside him. "What would you like to pray about Sam?"

"Nothing," he admits. "Everything."

"Maybe some direction then," Joe proposes as he bows his hand. He's surprised when he feels Sam slip his warm hand into his. He glances out of the corner of his head and sees his friend's eyes shut tightly. "Do you want me to…?"

Sam just jumps in, and when he's finished, Joe echoes his whispered amen before they both let go. Sam has pretty much just poured out his soul to God, and Joe thinks about how he had no idea that his friend was even hurting. And then Sam grins at him and does some impression of Charlton Hesston from "The Ten Commandments" before going back over to the piano to work on a trio he's doing with Artie and Blaine for the upcoming pep assembly.

He asks Joe the same question two weeks later, but he lets the so-called Teen Jesus lead the impromptu prayer session. They're at lunch this time, just the two of them sitting across from each other at an otherwise empty table in the cafeteria. When he's done, Sam pops a carrot stick in his mouth and starts to talk to Joe about the paintball team he's leading. Joe thinks it's strange but knows that this is just Sam.

It's only after the third time Sam shows up (after school in the parking lot, leaning against his car in the back row of the parking lot) that Joe finally thinks to ask what is going on. "I just miss having someone around to share this with. The Hummels are great, but it's not really there thing. Q's in Boston and Mercedes is in LA. With my family still Kentucky, I guess I've just been feeling a little bit lost."

It's then that Joe gets it. Sam has people, but he's feeling a little spiritually lonely. "Want to go to church with my family this weekend? They always have really good cinnamon rolls in Sunday school."

Sam smiles like a little kid and nods eagerly. Joe picks up at eight sharp every Sunday until he leaves Lima at the end of August.

* * *

_**Into the man I want to be.**_  
Sam has a heart-to-heart with Kurt in the middle of July when they're hanging out with everyone at one of those Move in the Park things that Lima organizes every year.

"You know that Blaine loves you."

Sam looks at him and frowns. "The same could be said for you."

"Yes, but unlike you, I return those feelings."

"You sound jealous, Hummel," Sam remarks. "Besides, I love him too."

"As a friend?"

"As a best friend," he corrects Kurt evenly. "I was there for him when you weren't."

"He cheated on me or have you forgotten?"

"No, I haven't forgotten. I'm the one who got to hear about it nearly every day for eight months until you forgave him. I'm the one who'll get to hear about it when you go back to New York and you're still not together. I don't get what's going on here."

Kurt stares at him icily. "You don't need to understand."

"Probably not, but Blaine does," Sam points out. "You should probably figure it out too. I mean, you're sitting here jealously professing your love for your supposed ex-boyfriend. You're staking your claim when you know that I am absolutely not interested in anything other than friendship with him. I'm not your competition. The only thing keeping you two apart is you, so stop blaming me."

Kurt is quiet for a moment. "Maybe you're right," he finally allows. "I just…it's easier to blame you than him or me. I'm sorry, Sam, I know that wasn't fair. You've been good for Blaine this year. You were there when I wasn't ready or when I couldn't be."

"And now I'm going to Oberlin and you're going to be at NYADA with him," Sam reminds him. "I'm going to have to rely on you to take care of my best friend. Blaine needs you, Kurt. I've done all that I can for him, but you are his man."

By the time they leave for college in August, Kurt and Blaine are back together, and Sam is confident that at least one good thing came out of his last year in Lima.

* * *

_**Lyrics credit to "Man I Want to Be" by Chris Young**_


	8. Kurt

**_You're young until you're not.  
_**Kurt spent the first two months of his supposed freshman year of college trying not to hate Lima, Ohio. He had always dreamt of getting out of that one-horse town, and this was supposed to be that year. There were still so many thing (people) that he loved there, but he wanted to be in New York. He wanted to say goodbye and get to miss those people while he was living his dreams in the City That Never Sleeps. But he's stuck there and that makes him hate Lima. He thinks that maybe they both deserve better.

Blaine is the one thing that is making being stuck there okay, but all of that changes the minute that Kurt gets the offer at Vogue. He's excited and making plans with Rachel over the phone while his boyfriend watches helplessly on. Kurt is so caught up in his dream that he forgot about the things that were good about Lima. He doesn't really remember until weeks later when he's alone in New York and wondering about his boyfriend.

They talk a lot at first and then barely at all. Kurt is busy and Blaine is distant and Kurt mistakenly takes that to mean that he's busy too. And then he comes to visit and Kurt suddenly realizes just how much he had missed Blaine. They're walking and he wants to show him New York. A few minutes later, there are only tears and a broken heart.

He doesn't take any blame for a long time. It's not until Schue's first wedding that he really gets how maybe his own selfishness played apart. He still knows that Blaine's cheating is all on him and there are a lot of trust issues. He also sees that his ex-boyfriend was clearly in love with a pouty-lipped blonde and isn't sure how he feels about it. He hooks up with Blaine anyways and knows that it's a mistake instantly. Kurt kisses Blaine's cheek after but he doesn't have the heart to look him in the eye when he says goodbye.

* * *

**_You love until you don't._**  
Finn comes out to see him in December when Rachel is back in Ohio visiting her fathers for Hanukah. It's just the two of them knocking around the loft, and Kurt isn't ashamed to admit how much he's missed his brother. They take turns picking out things to do and catch each other up on their lives. They talk about everything except one thing. They never talk about Rachel.

"So you're really liking it at McKinley?"

"I think I'm good at it," Finn shrugs. "I don't mind until Mr. Schue is back. I get to hang out with Artie and Sam, so that's pretty cool. And the new kids are pretty good, they might have a real chance at repeating at Nationals."

"We'll have to make sure we make it back for that," Kurt says and Finn arches an eyebrow in his direction that makes him clarify immediately. "The parents and me, you know we wouldn't miss it for anything."

Finn is quiet for a minute before he looks up at his brother. "Is she, ya know, okay and stuff?"

Kurt nods before he looks up at Finn. "Are you?"

"It hurts a little less everyday," he said. "I'm looking forward to the day where I don't love her anymore."

"Think that'll ever happen?" Kurt asks as he remembers his tearful phone call to Finn the night he found out that Blaine had cheated on him. "Do you think the love will ever just go away?"

"Probably not," Finn admitted. "I still love Quinn on some level and look at our history. Rachel is always going to have a piece of my heart, but I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to forgive her for this. I think she knew before it even happened. Sometimes you just have to let go." Finn took a deep breath and forced himself. "Thanks for listening, bro. I really missed this, you know?"

Kurt grinned and nodded his head. "Yes, Finn, I know."

* * *

**_You try until you can't._**  
Kurt used to be best friends with Mercedes Jones. She had been the one person besides his dad who had always cared what happened to him, and now it felt like they barely knew each other. He knew that it was his fault at first because he had gone to Dalton, met Blaine and sort of forgot all about their friendship. He'd been stupid enough to think that was okay because she had Sam. Now, she was living in California realizing her dream, while he was in New York living one of his own. He had always thought that he would get to share these moments with her.

So he decides to call her one day while he's walking to NYADA. She answers on the third ring, bass-heavy music blaring in the background. "Kurt Hummel?"

"Hey, Diva," he grinned. "Are you busy? Can you talk?"

"Yeah, yeah, just let me slip outside," she told him happily. He could hear her muffle the speaker and say something to someone in the background. A minute later, the music was falling away and he could hear the light but familiar sounds of traffic. "Sorry about that, we were just listening to the playback on the song we recorded last night."

"How's that going?"

"Pretty great actually," she told him. "I'm flying out to Chicago this weekend to meet up with Chang. He's going to do the choreo on the video."

"You're doing a video?"

"I know, can you believe it?" she gushed happily. Kurt couldn't believe he didn't know this. There would have been a time when he would have been the first one to know, and now, before today, he realizes they hadn't talked in three months. "It's everything I've ever wanted. How about you? How are things in New York?"

"Amazing," he admitted. "I love it here. School's great. Santana is living with us so that's kind of weird."

"Yeah, Q told me," Mercedes laughed. "Or maybe it was Puckerman, one of them."

"You still talk to Quinn and Puck?"

"Oh, sure, all the time," she answered. "And Tina and Artie pretty regularly, Brittany and Sam when I can. Like I said, I'm going to see Mike this weekend, and I always grab coffee with Finn when I'm home. I've pretty much seen everyone but you and Rachel. You guys never seem to be in Ohio when I am except for the wedding. You were pretty caught up in stuff then, I'm really sorry we didn't get the chance to catch up."

"Me too," he retorted in a small voice. "Mercedes, I'm sorry I haven't been there."

She exhaled softly into his ear. "It's okay, Kurt. It's part of growing up."

"But it was before this year, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, Diva, it was," she told him truthfully. "But like I said, it's okay, Kurt, I understand. I know that if I ever really needed you, you would be there for me. You don't have to tell me all the time for me to know that much."

"You know you're still my best friend, right?"

"What about Blaine and Berry?"

"Nope, that name only belongs to you," he promised. "And I am going to try to live up to that a little better from now on."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Of course, darling," he laughed. "Besides, who else are you going to trust enough to be the stylist on this video? You know that my style is impeccable.

* * *

**_You laugh until you cry._**  
Brittany Pierce is probably the last person Kurt expects to call him. "I need a favor, Unicorn."

"Uh."

"Look, I know San is there with you, and I just need you to take care of her."

"Santana's fine, Britt," Kurt chuckled.

"No, she isn't," the blonde said knowingly. "She'll pretend that she is, but she misses me, Kurt, just like Blaine misses you. We've been taking care of him all year until you decided that you can forgive me. Sam and I have taken him under our awesome wings until the Dolphin is ready to swim again. It's your turn to return the favor and watch out for her."

"I didn't ask you to watch out for Blaine."

"You didn't have to, Unicorn, it's just what friends do. We are friends still, aren't we?"

"Of course, Britt," he told her. He was slightly confused but that wasn't anything new when it came to talking to her. "But really, Santana is fine. She's keeping herself busy and going out. She's loving it here. You don't need to worry about her."

"Listen to me, Kurt Hummel, I know that you're smarter than me when it comes to almost everything, but I am smarter than you when it comes to Santana Lopez," she said wisely. "And she is not fine. I can't take care of her right now so you need to do it. Don't make me tell Rachel Berry on you."

Kurt agrees and ends the call before the blonde can get truly weird. He tells Santana that Brittany called after she gets home late from her shift at the bar. She looks at him for exactly twelve seconds before she starts bawling. He pours her shots of tequila until she calms down.

Brittany sends him a thank you note the next week. It is signed by both her and Lord Tubbington.

* * *

**_You cry until you laugh._**  
Kurt sits between Rachel and Santana in the football stands during graduation and tries to pretend he isn't crying when Blaine crosses the stage to get his diploma. He's been on edge all day, being back here and amongst his old friends. Things are still so undecided with Blaine and he doesn't really know what he's doing. He tries to ignore the uncertainty when he piles out of his old Navigator with the girls and Mercedes in toe. Artie's parents are throwing a party for all of the seniors, and for once, Kurt just wants to skip the melodrama and have some fun.

That lasts all of five minutes until Noah Puckerman of all people traps him in a dark corner of the backyard. There would have been a time not too long ago when this would have been his darkest nightmare. HOwever, times have changed the way the mohawked boy has been staring after the shorter of his roommates all night shows that so has Noah.

"Is Berry seeing anyone?"

"No, Rachel is not in a relationship," Kurt answered primly. "Why are you inquiring?"

"Just curious," he brushed him off. "Thanks, Beyonce."

Puck started to walk away when Kurt caught him by the wrist. "She's had a tough year, Puck. If you're gonna go after her, make sure it's for the right reasons."

"I've missed Rachel for the past nine months," Puck said, leveling Kurt with a look. "Do you need a better reason than that?"

Kurt laughs and shakes his head. "There isn't one."

"Nope," Puck declared, popping the p for emphasis. "Just like the fact you love the Hobbit is the best reason for you to forgive him."

"You know about that?"

"You're not the only one who gossips in this little group of ours," Puck pointed out. "I'm gonna go find Berry. You should really find your boy. I think I saw him talking to Sam."

Kurt could have never predicted that Noah Puckerman would be the one to finally get him to forgive Blaine. He could have totally predicted, however, that Puckleberry 2.0 would happen. In fact, he was pretty sure this meant that Blaine had lost their little bet and owed him dearly. With a deep breath and a glance over his shoulder, Kurt crossed the year with the intent of full collection.

* * *

**_Lyrics credit to "On the Radio" by Regina Spektor._**


	9. Tina

_**Give me more loving than I've ever had.**_  
Tina starts out the first day of her last year of high school feeling so alone. There used to be a time not so long ago when she felt like this all the time, but then she lost her stutter and gained friends. There is no Mercedes, no Kurt, no Rachel. It's just her and Artie from the original crew, and he's waiting for her at her locker when she comes into McKinley for the first time since their graduation.

"I heard you and Mike broke up."

"Yeah," she says as she spin the dial on her locker. "He's in Chicago. Rachel is in New York, Kurt will be too soon. Mercedes is in LA. It's just us two."

Artie pushes up the bridge of his glasses and smiles up at her hopefully. "Well, if I was going to be stuck with anyone," he teases her. "But Britt is still here, so are Blaine and Sam. This year is going to be great, Tina, you just have to give us a chance."

"Us?"

"Your friends," he answers with a grin. "Besides, you're the lead now. If you're not there for us to follow, this whole thing is going to fall apart without you."

It's not exactly true but she appreciates it anyhow. As she pushes his chair into the choir room where Brittany was already waiting with Blaine and Sam, Tina suddenly feels surrounded by love.

* * *

_**Make me feel better when I'm feeling sad.**_  
Brittany found her before the first football game of the season. She was already dressed in her Cheerio uniform, perfectly curled blonde ponytail swinging behind her. "I just wanted to make sure that my favorite Hidden Dragon was okay," she smiled as she hugged her. Brittany had taken to calling her that after she heard about _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_, and her innocence far outweighs any offense Tina might have taken. "I am sure you are missing Mike today since you always came to watch the games. Since he's not here and neither is San, I thought I'd ask if you just wanted to watch me."

Tina isn't really sure why Brittany thinks to ask, but she knew that maybe she wasn't the only one missing someone. "Sure, Britt, that'd be really nice," she agreed with a genuine smile. The truth was that she was really only here out of habit anyhow, so it might be nice to have a reason like supporting a friend to show up every Friday night. "And since Santana isn't here, if you need to look up to have someone to encourage me, you can look for me. I'll even bring a sign next time."

"Can you take some pictures on your phone too? I know Lord Tubbington would love to have some. He was just saying that he needed to put a new wallpaper on his iPhone."

Tina showed up the next week with a hot pink posterboard with unicorn and dinosaur stickers and Brittany's name in purple glitter.

* * *

_**Tell me I'm special even though I'm not.**_  
"Tina, that was amazing."

She looks up at Mr. Schuester and almost swears that it was the first time she had heard him say it since that "True Colors" solo sophomore year. "Thank you," she replies curtly before taking her seat. She's almost mad at him for sounding so surprised. Just because his favorite star wasn't around didn't mean that she was going to soak up his attention. This year wasn't about anyone but her.

However, when Blaine leans over and presses his elbow against hers, she does feel a twist of something in her heart. "That song is going to get us to Nationals," he whispers while keeping his eyes fixed at the front of the room where Sam and Sugar were setting up for their assigned duet. "_You_ are going to get us to Nationals."

Maybe it takes both of them, but come May, Tina knows that she's done her part.

* * *

_**Make me feel good when I feel so bad.**_  
Rachel comes to visit Tina when she's home for the first nights of Hanukah with her fathers. They plan a sleepover with Kurt, who's also in town, and spend an hour on Skype with Mercedes. All three of them have been out of Lima for four months, living out these lofty dreams they'd always had, but all they want to talk about is her. She's the one still stuck at McKinley, still in Lima, but they only want to hear about Glee. Tina realizes then that you're always going to want what you don't have, at least on some level. She doesn't truly get it until a year later when she shows up to help Blaine and Sam do a Lesson of the Week on a break of their own.

* * *

_**Barely getting mad.**_  
The fall out from the Finn-Schue fight is huge, and everyone seems to take their teacher's side. He was a scorned man, and Finn had clearly overstepped his bounds. Blaine has some sort of awkward thing against him ever since the Klaine breakup, Sam can see history repeating itself and Brittany has always just been weirdly allegiant to Finn. Artie's been cheated on before, and the newbies don't really have the attachment to Finn that the others have. So Tina is sort of all he has left in Lima.

"You know, you could just try apologizing to all of them," she proposed one day when she was hanging out at Burt's shop, propped up on a toolbox while Finn works under the hood. "I know you might not think it, but they feel betrayed too."

"And you don't?"

"I understand that life happens," she corrected him. "Don't get me wrong, I hate what you did, Finn, but I get how it did. Mr. Schuester shouldn't have left someone like Miss Pillsbury here all alone to deal with planning any entire wedding. Anyone who knows her knows that she needs support. You were just trying to help. Your intentions were good, even if your methods were a disaster."

Finn grabbed a rag hanging out of one of the drawers and wiped it across his brow. "It's more than that. Emma was freaking out, and it just reminded me of how Rachel used to get. It was a natural reaction. It's exactly what I would have done to calm her down."

"But Miss Pillsbury isn't Rachel," she reminded Finn. "And you are not Mr. Schue."

"I know," he nodded slowly. "I've just been missing Rach and feeling lonely. Helping her distracted me from remembering for awhile. Of course, now she won't even talk to me, and I've pretty messed everything up."

"Not everything," she replied reassuringly. "And if you need a friend, I'm still available. You just have to promise that you won't kiss me."

Finn chuckled but he never promised. It was a good thing, too, because it is a promise he would have ended up breaking many times over.

* * *

_**I'm so glad I found you.**_  
Puck was sitting on the edge of the stage, his legs swinging freely, when Tina came in late for _Grease _practice. He had his old acoustic guitar laid across his lap, and she remembered watching him a few times like this back when he used to be one of the background players with the Glee Club. He was a lot like her in that way, equally (if not more) talented but less adamant about needing to be the star. He was happy just to get to sing and play, and if it ended up making him the certain of attention, that was fine. The rest of the time, he just wanted to have his guitar in his hand.

"What's up, Other Asian?" he asked as she came slowly down the aisle. "I figured you would have been around earlier. Why aren't you doing the musical?"

"Oh, you know, stuff," she shrugged. She knows he doesn't want to hear all the excuses about "The New Rachel," and honestly, she can't hear another person stick up for Marley. "What are you still doing here?"

"Just reliving old ghosts," he smirked, gesturing around the room. "Chang's here."

"I saw him earlier."

"And how was that?"

"Well, how was seeing Quinn?" she asked rhetorically. When he replied with a cool _touché,_ she decided that she would ask the question she had been dying to ask all of them. "What's it like being apart and seeing each other again in general?"

He smiled fondly at her. "Better actually," he answered honestly. "You get a little distance, perspective and shit. You realize who you really want to know in a few years. You miss some people more than you thought you would."

"Like Rachel?"

He blushed a little but never really answered.

* * *

_**I love being around you.**_  
"You look like you could spit nails." Tina looked up from where she was glaring daggers at Sam Evans and turned her gaze to Santana. "Don't worry, I won't judge you, I hate him too."

"What's so great about Sam Evans anyway?"

"Beats me," Santana shrugged. "He is a pretty good kisser though, you know, if you can get over his mouth. And his body is kinda epic so there's that. But he's dumb as a box of rocks and those impressions get really freakin' annoying after hanging out with him for more than two minutes."

"And yet," Tina exhaled, "Blaine is still in love with him."

"Oh, yeah, I heard you went all freaky stalker girl with the Hobbit," Santana laughed cruelly. She doesn't even pretend to feel sorry and make a false apology.

"I heard that he got Brittany a promise ring after that whole wedding thing at Christmas," Tina snapped back, looking visibly pleased with herself when Santana's obnoxious grin faltered. "Either way, he's got both of them on the line, and we're stuck on the outside looking in."

"I hate Sam Evans," Santana barked. "I hate him and his stupid blonde hair and his big trouty lips."

"Yeah, they're the ones missing out," Tina declared. She knew it was a lie but it felt good anyhow. "We could try to get them back…or get them in the first place…if we really tried."

Santana looked to where Sam was sitting between Brittany and Blaine before she shook her head. "We could, but we'd both lose," she said. "What do you say we get out of here and get super drunk at Puckerman's ? He said he has a bottle of Crown."

Two hours later, when she's forgotten all about Blaine and laughing as Puck tries to play drunken Dance Dance Revolution, Tina decides she sort of loves Santana Lopez.

* * *

_**You make it easy.**_  
Mike comes to her graduation with a bouquet of lavender lilacs and waits for her after the ceremony to tell her congratulations in person. He looks the same mostly, maybe a little more toned, but with that signature smile that made her fall in love so long ago. It's not awkward at all, not even a little bit, and when he takes her hand to lead her over to their friends, it's as natural as anything she has ever known.

It's always been easy with Mike. He's just that kind of a guy. He's as nice as he is talented, and the only real problem they ever had besides timing was his parents. Now that they're both his biggest supporters when it comes to his dance career, Mrs. Chang has mentioned a time or two that she wouldn't mind seeing them back together. She always just smiles and blushes politely so as to not make any real commitment.

They hang out all summer, with their friends and alone. It's always sorta just the two of them wherever they go. He leaves town for a week to head up a dance camp back in Chicago, and he helps her when she puts together at Asian Camp's production of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." They know that their time together has an expiration date, and out of all the things they talk about that summer, that's the one they ignore. And then Tina finally brings it up when they're skipping rocks down at the lake on night in August. He turns to her with a slow smile and shrugs.

"I just sort of thought we'd stay together," he told her. "We tried last year apart and it didn't work. You're in college now so we'll be on a similar schedule. You can visit me in Chicago and I'll come see you in New York."

Tina never points out that they never had really decided that they were indeed together. Like everything with else Mike Chang, it just happens.

* * *

**Lyrics credit to "1234" by the Plain White T's.**


	10. Mercedes

**_Someone throw your hands up.  
_**Mercedes sat alone in her apartment in Los Angeles, looking out at the dark sky and the bright moon above. It was the same moon that was back in Ohio, but it looked totally different washed out by the glow of a million California lights. She couldn't even see the stars at all. There were some things she missed about Lima, and the night sky was maybe the thing she missed most of all.

"Even the sunsets aren't the same," she complained to Rachel one night. They were both loving their new homes, living out their lifelong dreams, but it didn't mean that everything was perfect. "I keep trying to find the first start when it appears, but I can never see them. I mean, that's if I'm even out of the studio before the sun goes down. I think I missed seeing the sun at all three days this week."

"I know, isn't it wonderful?" Rachel mused. She thrived on the busy schedule, the dance classes and the voice lessons and the acting studies. Mercedes loved recording, but she also loved having somewhat of a normal life. The only person she had seen that wasn't attached to her label or the record was Puck, and that had been for exactly twenty minutes last Thursday when he had stopped by the studio with a burrito. "Aren't you loving it?"

"Yeah, sure, of course."

Rachel was quiet for a moment. "I know it's hard, Mercedes, it's hard for me too," she admitted. "But I'm choosing to make the most of it because I know that this is what I really want. It will all be worth it in the end. Even if it has to be hard for a little bit, it helps built character. We'll look back some day and remember these as some of the best years of our lives."

Mercedes laughed at Rachel's sunny disposition. She wasn't sure that she really believed it, but she wanted to and for now, that was enough. "It'd be nice to just go back to the way it was for even a day. I don't think I appreciated it enough. I thought I did, but…"

"I thought it would be different too," Rachel confessed. "I thought Finn and Kurt would be here. I never thought that I would have to conquer New York alone. They're back in Lima but given the chance, I know that I would choose New York every time. "

"Yeah," Mercedes decided, thinking of Sam briefly, "I would have chosen LA too."

"Good," Rachel giggled. "Now that's settled, have you seen Noah?"

* * *

**_If you wanna take a chance._**  
Mercedes doesn't call Sam from California until after he's broken up with Brittany. Artie texted her all the details right before they started showing up on her Facebook feed.

"You okay?"

"Not yet, I will be," he acknowledged. "Why is it the girls that always do all the breaking? Q cheated on me and San was…well, San. You broke up with me – twice – and left. Now Britt's gone."

She felt bad because she knew he was right. She also knew that their breakup had been the best thing. She wasn't as sure about Brittany and Sam, but that was mostly because she hadn't been around for most of their relationship. Mercedes only knew that the two of them had been happy, and they had to have been for Brittany to choose Sam over Santana.

"She'll be back," Mercedes reminded him. "For graduation and stuff. You could always go there in a few months when you graduate. They are some great music programs up there."

"Britt's a magical butterfly and if I hold her too tightly in my hand, she wouldn't die. She'll come back to me if that's how our story ends," he mused. She admired his childlike view of the world, the one she knew he shouldn't have all the bad things he'd seen in his short life. "I know why all the other things had to last, but this one doesn't feel the same."

"What do you mean?"

"Quinn loved me the best way she knew how to do at that time, but she still had to accept some reality she wasn't ready to deal with before she could do it the right way. I think she still needed closure with Finn, maybe Puck too, before she was going to be ready," he said. Mercedes was struck, not for the first time, how perceptive he was. Sam got people. "Santana and I were just a distraction for both of us. It was superficial. It's pretty clear why that ended."

"And us?"

"I'm your Finn," he mused softly. "You loved me but we were a high school kind of love. You were always going to love music and the stars more. Even then, I knew it was a matter of time. It's just like Rachel was with Finn. Someday she'll find the guy she's supposed to be with and she'll love him more than the stage or at least someone who is okay with coming in second. You will too."

"You were never second to my dreams, Sam."

"I was but I know you loved me, Mercedes," he assured her wisely. "If you hadn't, you wouldn't be where you are now, and I wouldn't be me."

* * *

**_You gotta sing a little louder.  
_**She was doubting herself. They had been all over her this week, telling her that her voice was sounding pitchy and that she could stand to rehearse a little more with choreographer and that she really needed to think about getting a new weave. Mercedes had made an effort to shed a lot of her insecurities when she was with Shane and then Sam, but now that those safety nets were both gone, those familiar feelings were starting to rush back to her. When she got like that, she knew that there was only one person who could get her back in shape.

"Alright, Jones, enough with the pity party," Santana barked on the screen. She was sprawled out on her bed in her dorm in Kentucky while Mercedes was on the other end of the webcam in LA. "They signed you for a reason, you know that. You gotta get yourself out of that headspace."

"And if I can't?"

"Well, we did do a pretty awesome duet on 'The Boy is Mine.' Think they'd be interested in making us an all-group girl? I'm sure Britt would be on board, and you know Berry never passes up a chance to sing."

Mercedes writes a song about her girlfriends that night and dedicates it to Santana during her first live performance.

* * *

**_Let's wake this crowd up._**  
Mercedes knew better than anyone what Quinn had been through during their sophomore year. She had been there for the last months of her pregnancy and when Quinn had signed the adoption papers. She had also been promptly pushed to the periphery and replaced by Santana and Brittany when she decided she wanted to reclaim her crown atop the McKinley social food chain. It was like the last year hadn't happened.

By the time senior year came around, they barely acknowledged that they were ever really friends. Mercedes was wrapped up in Shane and trying to make the most of her senior year. Quinn was off being part of The Skanks and shunning anything attached to her old life. Even when she came back, it was to the guys and Tina rather than The Troubletones, no matter how much Mercedes had asked her.

But despite all of that, when Quinn shows up at Thanksgiving talking about sleeping with a married professor, Mercedes has had enough. "What are you doing with your life, Fabray?" she snapped. She's alone in the kitchen with Quinn and Puck, both of their eyes wide as they stare up at her. "Puck told me what Rachel told him, and you know better than this. I was there that day, remember? The one where you said you had to do this so you could make your life worth it, so she could have a future and that you'd make one for yourself that she could be proud of?"

Quinn stared at her. "What about him?"

"Do not drag Landing Strip here into it," she barked. "You know that he didn't want this, but he supported you. We all did. We've always supported you, but this is just too much. You have perpetually cheated on your boyfriends since you were sixteen. You keep talking about turning over a new leaf, but I only see those same patterns from where I stand."

"Don't judge me."

"You need to listen to her, Q," Puck said evenly. "This is not the stuff Beth needs to hear about. I don't usually care what you do but you're gonna mess up your chance with Yale."

"You clean pools."

"I'm working on a plan," he brushed her off. "And stop deflecting, this is about you."

"I hear you guys, okay? I'm just trying to have some fun," Quinn replied. "Why do you even care?"

"Because we care about you," Mercedes shook her head. "Even if you want to pretend that all of that never happened, we're always going to remember. We were there with you and we won't let you forget. You've come too far not to look back, Quinn. We all have."

Quinn stops the affair by the time she comes back for Schue's disaster of a wedding, and Mercedes keeps her mouth shut when she sees the blonde making out with Santana during the reception.

* * *

**_Lyrics credit to "Live Life Loud" by Hawk Nelson._**


	11. Blaine

**_And I'm never ready._**  
Blaine knew what he was doing when he boarded the plane for New York. He knew that he was going to have to tell the truth. It was the only inevitable outcome really. He simply loved Kurt too much to keep it a secret any longer. His boy, his beautiful boy, deserved to know the truth.

He still couldn't explain what made him go looking for anything else. He had everything in Kurt, and a temporary loneliness had made him doubt everything. That risk had failed monumentally, and now, he knew it had the potential to stretch out for a countless number of days. Blaine had been the one to cheat, and he had no right to feel devastated about it. It really sucked know you're about to be broken up with before the other person even knows why they're going to want to do it.

There are a lot of tears after Blaine has actually said the words. Kurt is so far away from him right now and he keeps looking at Blaine as if he is a total stranger. Maybe he is; the Blaine that Kurt knew would never do this. It's like Sebastian all over again but more and totally justified. No angry Whitney Houston songs will force them to talk about it. This is the end.

Blaine only tries one more time before he flies back to Ohio and then it's months of radio silence after that.

* * *

_**Cause I know, I know, I know.**_  
"Rachel, how is he?"

The line is silent. "Blaine, I can't talk."

"But you're the only one who knows and Finn won't talk to me," Blaine begged. It was like a month after he had left New York, and he was getting desperate for answers. "I just need to know that he's okay."

Rachel sighed softly. "He's getting there, he just needs more time."

"We used to be friends, Rachel."

"I live with him, Blaine."

Blaine scoffed. "I wasn't the only one in this conversation who made mistakes."

"That's not fair..."

"Nothing about this is fair, Rachel," Blaine said and then he hung up.

* * *

_**That time won't let me.**_  
All it takes is Sam suggesting that maybe it was time to move on before Blaine developed a crush. He liked it because it felt safe. There was absolutely no chance of anything happening and that was exactly the kind of thing he needed to get over Kurt. Feelings for Sam wouldn't hurt up, especially since he knew going in that the blonde was completely straight and totally in love with Brittany.

So he throws himself into his friendship with the blonde and leading the Glee Club. He focuses on spending time with Tina and studying. He sings perfectly, gets perfect grades, looks perfect. Everything should be perfect but it's not. Kurt still hates him, is still gone, and there are some thing that time will never heal. He thinks his broken heart might be one.

* * *

_**Show what I want to show.**_  
Blaine isn't sure how he convinces Kurt to forgive him, only that he does. They kiss (and more) and then they're sorta back together without ever really having a good conversation about it. He goes to Burt with a plan and he knows it's not the most brilliant thing ever but it still feels good. It feels right.

And then Finn reminds him how Kurt felt when his brother proposed last year to Rachel and what a disaster that ended up being for the relationship that was Finchel. The tall brunette comes to see him the Saturday after classes at OSU let out and the one before graduation. Kurt is coming home soon and there is a ring in his dresser and he's just counting the minutes.

"Dude, you seriously can't do this. It's not a good idea, and that's coming from me."

He's pretty sure that it should have taken him longer to be convinced but he isn't. He decides that waiting is probably a good idea, especially when he's in Kurt's bed in New York three months later with their entire futures stretched ahead of them. Tina is back with Mike and Brittany and Sam are hanging out again and Finn (after the breakup with Tina that was actually pretty amicable) is focused on school and Artie is spending time with Quinn and somehow best friends with Santana. Rachel and Puck are slowly dancing toward Puckleberry 2.0 and Mercedes is going to be a star. And Blaine, well, he's just glad to have Kurt back in his arms.

* * *

_**Lyrics credit to "Slow and Steady" by Of Monsters and Men.**_


	12. Mike

_**Maybe it's up with the stars.**_  
The stage manager puts a big gold star on his dressing room door the first time Mike is cast as the dance lead at the Joffrey. He can't see a gold star without thinking about Rachel Berry. Mike told her as much when he sent her a photo of the door in a text message a few minutes before he went on stage. She replied promptly with a smiling emoticon and then a photograph of a tiny gold ninja from one of those bubblegum machines, one he recognizes from Puck's collection that always seemed to be overflowing in his truck's ashtray.

He called her afterward to tell her how it went but only because of her insistence in a series of twelve text messages waiting on his phone when the show was over. They end up talking the entire fifteen minutes it takes him to get from the theater to the dorm room he shares with a short Hispanic guy from Albuquerque. Mike stays out in the hallway, slouched awkwardly against the wall, while she talks about her classes and the friends she has made in New York and how she misses all of their friends.

"I broke up with Finn, you know," she says quietly after awhile.

"Me too, with Tina," he commiserates. But then he thinks of a certian friend and brightens considerably. "Puck really helped me get through some stuff." The mohawked kid had always been good to Mike, who knew about the torch his friend had been carrying for the songstress for two years. "You should give him a call."

Puck mentions the conversation the next time they're playing COD online with Artie and Blaine. Eight months later, Puck repays him with a bouquet of gas station flowers and a not-so-subtle hint about heading to McKinley's graduation to see Tina.

* * *

_**Maybe it's under the sea.**_  
Mike and Mercedes end up at the beach when he flies out to LA to help her start choreographing a few routines for her first concert. She's not as lazy as she was during the days of Booty Camp, but her dance talents haven't improved along with her attitude. Still, he admires how hard she tries and adapts the steps to fit her ability.

They go for a swim to celebrate afterward, and Mike tells Mercedes about how he's always been afraid of deep water. "You can't see what's out there," he reveals. "I guess it's the fear of the unknown."

She knows that he's not talking about the ocean then and can't help but grabbing his hand under the water. "Sometimes that's the best part."

* * *

_**Maybe it's not very far.**_  
There are times when Chicago seems like it's on an entirely different planet than Lima, but when Mike drives home, he always realizes how close it really is. The graduates that are home for Thanksgiving end up in the auditorium, and it's like old times as they sing together and drift toward the stage like it's True North. There are hugs all around and talks about helping the new kids. A few minutes of idle chit chat later, and Quinn is already begging off to go see her parents. Mercedes has to meet up with Tina, and Puck is supposed to hang out with newfound brother. Mike ends up staying behind with Finn and Santana because he doesn't have anything better to do.

"What's it been like here?" Mike asks Finn, who shrugs and smiles. He knows that McKinley fits his friend well. "Well, you look good, man. You seem happy."

"It's nice to be needed for once," he declares before glancing over at Santana. The Latina smirks at him knowingly, and all three of them are thinking about the things that used to tether them to their hometown. "But I think it would be nice to leave someday."

"Don't go to Kentucky," Santana laughs. "That place is a hole. Maybe it took leaving Lima to appreciate it because after being in Louisville, home doesn't seem so bad."

"And they say you can't come home again," Mike teases her.

Finn thinks for a moment. "I don't know about that, I hope that I will always think of this place as home. It's where I come from, ya know? Even if I live far, far away, Lima will always be close to me. When a place is in your heart, it's never really that far."

Santana and Mike exchanged an amused look. Though they might agree with the oaf, they would never admit it. Instead, Santana threw her arm around their friend and pulled him toward the door while asking who was throwing the welcome home party. Mike couldn't do anything but follow.

* * *

**_Maybe this is how it's supposed to be.  
_**No one ever knew that Mike had a crush on Quinn in high school. Sure, he loved Tina and liked Brittany before that, but he had always had this thing for the wholesome blonde. Of course, there was too much baggage to ever really pursue it. Finn had been there, Sam had been there and Puck had definitely been there. They were his bros and even if bro code had been broken a million times over where Quinn was concerned, Mike was still allegiant to his friends. That never stopped him from dreaming.

They ran into each other in Lima in February when Quinn was home for her father's birthday and Mike was in town to celebrate his parents' anniversary. No one else was around really, so they ended up alone at the Lima Bean hovering over two cups of coffee the day before Valentine's Day. She was wearing a fuzzy red sweater with her lips painted to match. She looked really pretty, he thinks, and he eventually told her as much. She blushed when she thanked him.

He watched her get into her car afterward, waving happily before she drove off into the cold night air. It's then that he realized that some things are better left as dreams. He could always wonder what might have been and let that be enough. Quinn was a dream girl, but she wasn't the girl of Mike's dreams.

* * *

_**This is how it's supposed to be.**_  
"I'm really proud of you," Mike told Tina after graduation was over. She was wearing a pretty cobalt blue dress beneath her gown when he handed over the flowers he had been holding all afternoon. "You guys sounded great. I miss being up there with you."

"Yeah, New Directions never was really the same without everyone," she admitted. "I mean, it was great in its own way, but when I think about high school, I think of you guys."

"I think that's how we're supposed to remember it," he replied. "At least that's how I want to remember it. When I think about high school, I think about you. I wouldn't give up those memories for anything."

Tina looked down at her shoes. She knew what he was getting at, but she also knew that she couldn't go there with him right now. "Mike, I'm seeing Finn," she told him softly. He knew, of course, they all did. It had been unexpected, and he would be lying if he said it didn't hurt. He also didn't believe that it would last. "I mean, I'm glad you came and everything, but he's my boyfriend."

"I know," he acknowledged. "I did see you two kiss earlier."

She laughed and blushed prettily at the reminder. "I hope that we can be friends. It'd be really great to get to hang out with you summer."

They hang out for two weeks before Finn decided that he wanted to leave Ohio for a bit and ended things with Tina. The breakup was actually pretty mutual, and she ended up on the Changs' doorstep two hours after she said goodbye to Finn. They make it a grand total of two days before they kiss for the first time in over a year, and by the time everyone gets together for the 4th, she has officially declared them back together. They don't break up when fall comes either. No, this time Mike decides that they should try the long distance thing, and they're still together by the time everyone comes back to Lima when the Schuesters have a little girl in the spring.

* * *

**_Lyrics credit to "Supposed to Be" by Jack Johnson. One left to go (Quinn)._**


	13. Quinn

**_Say goodnight, not goodbye. You will never leave my heart behind. Like the path of a star, I'll be anywhere you are._**

Quinn is the one thread that ends up weaving them all together after the end of that first year, somewhere in the middle of the second year. Two years gone, and they ended up back at the hospital to say goodbye all over again. No one expected it, but there they were, waiting in pairs to go into the depressing hospital room for those final words. It wouldn't be long before the machines were turned off, before she drew her final breath, before she closed her eyes and never woke up again.

Artie and Santana go in first. The two of them are inseparable, still best friends in New York despite basically everything. No one really gets how the ended up like they did, but that's what happens when everyone disappears for a summer. Quinn smiles at the Latina and then the bespectaled boy. Sometimes she thinks that those two might have known her best.

"You know, you always wanted to beat me at something," Quinn teased in a hoarse voice. She means it to be funny but it's not. "I guess you get to live longer than me. You finally came out on top, San."

"You know I like to be on bottom, Q," she replied in what she hoped was a humorous tone but knows is mostly just sad. "I...we..."

"I know," Quinn assured her, reaching out to hold her hand. She looked down at Artie then, his eyes big and wet behind his dark-rimmed glasses. "You take care of her, okay?" She glanced at Santana. "And you take care of him. You two have always been strong. San, you don't let anything defeat you, and Artie, you're the backbone of this group. I'm counting on you both."

They leave with tight hugs, and Quinn knows that it's getting near the end. Tina and Mike come in next. Tina is already crying and Mike looks so uncomfortable about being there. She hugs Tina for a long moment before reaching blindly for Mike's hand. He squeezes it as he gazes down at the fragile blonde. All those unspoken things that they both thought about last year passes by in that single look. She smiles and nods a little, earning a wink and a grin from him.

"You guys need to get married, okay? And have these brilliant, talented Asian babies," Quinn insists when Tina starts to sob again. "You are perfect for each other. Not everyone gets to have that. Don't take each other for granted."

"Never," Mike promised, and both girls knew he meant it. He had just gotten Tina back fully and he was doing everything he could to make sure they worked this time around. "We won't take any of us for granted, Quinn. We'll all stay together."

"And we'll remember," Tina pledged. "There will always be a place on stage for you."

"Mike, I need you to do me a favor," Quinn asked. "Rachel will help him, but be there for Puck too. He's going to need you. They both will. He listens to you when he won't listen to her."

She told them goodbye after he promised, and they were quickly replaced by Mercedes and Kurt. It was nice to see the two of them close again. She fondly remembered the sleepovers they used to have when she was pregnant, just the three of them pressed together in Mercedes' bedroom. Kurt sits on the edge of the mattress and fixes her hair. Mercedes holds her hand on the other side of the bed and the two of them gaze at each other across the room.

"Alright, divas, I've been asking for some favors from our friends. I told Artie earlier earlier that he was the backbone of our little family, but you two are the heart and the soul, Quinn revealed. "Kurt, you have more heart than anyone I have ever known. I need you to take care of them for me, okay? Finn and Rachel, both of them, they're going to need you. Rachel is going to try to be strong for Puck, but she has Mike to help her with that. She's going to need you to be there. Finn too, God, Kurt...you know that it's going to be hardest on him."

"You're his..."

"Yeah," she smiled. "Watch over your brother for me, okay? I need you to promise me. I can't...if I don't know he's okay."

Kurt nodded slowly. "Blaine and I, we got him, Quinn, I promise."

"Thank you," she replied before looking up at Mercedes. "What can I say to you, 'Cedes? You are the soul of all of us. You believe deeper, better than anyone. Believe for me, please. I'm really scared."

"What are we gonna do without you, Mama?"

Quinn pasted on her bravest face. "You'll be just fine. I'm always going to be with you."

"My guardian angel, huh?"

"You were mine when I needed it most," Quinn reminded her, thinking briefly of her daughter. Mercedes had been there when Quinn had been diagnosed. Stage four cancer, completely untreatable. "It's my turn to have your back. I'll never leave you."

It's that promise that gives Mercedes the strength to let go and Quinn the push to ask the next people in. It's the blonde wonder twins who come in next. Sam looks scared as Brittany tugs him by the hand behind her. Quinn moves over as Brittany crawls up on the bed next to her, laying her head on Quinn's shoulder while Brittany holds her hand. There were no words necessary between the two. It had always been this way.

"I love you, Q," Brittany whispered.

"I love you too, Brittany," Quinn whispered back.

Sam ended up sandwiched on the other side, and the three of them lay there just holding hands. Quinn somehow thinks that maybe this is her favorite goodbye because it's just comforting. All the bad feelings with Sam are gone. He's going to be okay because he has Brittany. She doesn't need to worry about either of them, and when he kisses her forehead before he goes, she knows that he knows that too.

Puck and Rachel, though, they're an entirely different story. He has Beth in his arms when he comes in, and her little girl has her finger wrapped around Rachel's hand as she giggles. She's getting so hold now, coming up on five, and Quinn hates this part most of all. She won't get to see another birthday, to see her grow up and become a woman. It was never going to be her place anyway but she would have taken what she could get. Rachel would get all of that now, those rare snapshots and glimpses about how life could have been.

They leave Quinn alone with Beth for a little while before they both come back in. Rachel disappears to take the little girl back to where Shelby is waiting in the lobby. Puck doesn't even bother to hide his tears. "Q."

"Hey, you're going to be an amazing father some day," she told him. "I'm sorry that I never gave you the chance to prove it before. Every time I see you with her, I'm reminded how wrong I was about you. You are a good man, Puck. I wouldn't pick another father for her if I could. She loves you, and you love her."

"I love you too, you know," he reminded her. "Still, after everything, I love you for giving her to me. She's the best thing either of us has ever done."

"Will you make sure she knows about me?"

"All the time, every chance we get," he promised. Quinn knows that the we he is talking about there includes Rachel, and she's comforted by that. "You've always looked like an angel and now you're going to be one."

"Thank you for everything, Puck," she said softly. "And even though I never said it enough, I love you too. I didn't just give Beth to you, you gave her to me."

He kisses her then, just a brief brush of his lips to hers. They can both taste the salty tears that are falling. Rachel comes in after and Puck squeezes her shoulder before going back to the waiting room. Rachel is the worst crier of all their friends. Quinn hates it immediately.

"A year from now, when it's one year gone and you've all started to move on, it's still going to eat away at him," Quinn told her. "And you're going to know it because you're the one who knows him best. I had a child with him, and you've always been the one who knew him better than anyone else. I used to be really jealous of you, you know? I know you were jealous of me, but the way Finn and Puck looked at you, I knew I'd never live up to you."

"It was always the four of us, Quinn. Finn and you and Noah and me."

"Kurt will take care of him, Rachel," Quinn told her, answering the unasked question she heard in that statement. "He's not yours to worry about anymore. You will because that's your nature, but you need to focus on Puck. He is going to need you. Mike will help, but it's you he will need."

"I don't know how to say goodbye."

"So don't," Quinn declared. "Sing it to me instead."

The two girls sang then, the last song that Quinn would ever sing. And when they were done, Rachel hugged her and they both cried a little more. Rachel stood at the door for a long time before she just sort of waved in a way that was so Rachel Berry. She closed it with a soft click and when it opened again, Quinn was happy to see the one person she had been waiting all day to see.

"Hey, baby."

Quinn grinned at Finn's greeting as he came into the room. He crawled up into the bed just like Brittany had earlier. She reached for his hand and twirled the metal band sitting snugly on his left ring finger. It had been her dream to always get married in her childhood church, and Finn had been the only one she could see giving it to her. He hadn't just agreed because he knew it would only be a few months. He agreed because despite everything, he had always loved Quinn. It had been the two of them in the beginning, and in the end - or at least her end - it would be them again.

"Finn..."

"No words, baby," he said softly. "Let's just lay here and breathe."

It seems like a silly way to spend those last minutes, to not say everything they ever wanted to say and profess their eternal love. However, they had already done those things. So, instead, they hold hands when the doctor comes in to turn off the machines and unhook the wires. They gaze at each other as her breath goes shallow and as her eyes slip shut. And when she goes, he literally feels her go. Finn wanted to follow after her but knew he couldn't.

Finn Hudson would have chased after her forever, and Quinn Fabray had known that from the very beginning.

**FIN.**

* * *

**_Lyrics credit to "Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye" by Beth Nielsen Chapman. I know that this is an unexpected ending, I didn't even see it coming. It's just what came out when I sat down to write it. Thanks for reading._**


End file.
